Stimulant drug technology has been developed in order to provide help for children who manifest the hyperkinetic syndrome. The effective use of this technology requires that we have knowledge about the social context through which this drug therapy is initiated, monitored and terminated. The objective of this proposal is to investigate a complex of issues associated with the stimulant drug treatment of the hyperkinetic child syndrome using a social systems approach. The nature of interaction among the medical, educational, and familial social systems is investigated in order to understand the initiation, monitoring and termination processes of the stimulant drug therapy. The salience of the modes of systems interaction of the three social systems upon education and psychological outcomes for the child is investigated. In addition, other important social variables such as teacher, parent and physician attitudes are related to the differential effects of stimulant drug treatment.